Angiefest.

I got to spend some quality time with two of my favorites this weekend, both named Angie!

Friday, Angie and her girls (two daughters and dog) met Rowdy and me at the dog park in Faribault.  The dogs were quick to jump in the water...and mud.

After the dogs were all wet and muddy, we walked a couple laps on the trail.

We worked up an appetite at the dog park, so we went home to make homemade pizza and dye eggs (better late than never, right?).

 Bella pretended they were bird eggs, hatched them, then let us eat them.  She just turned 4 and peeled the eggs without asking for any help-I was impressed!

 Livy thought the eggs looked like fun, too.

 Bella took a lot of pictures-had a few that turned out pretty good!

********

Saturday morning, my friend Jenna brought her dog Chip over to play with Rowdy.  They go to daycare together on Tuesdays and are very good friends!

Then Angie and Collin came to visit!  The weather was perfect so we spent some time outside for a while.

 

Collin treated Rowdy to a bit of a spa day.

 

 Next we went to the shrimp truck.  My dad has been getting shrimp from them for years and it's the best shrimp you'll find around here.  They drive fresh shrimp, crab, crawfish, flounder, snapper and oysters up from the Gulf of Mexico every few weeks, stopping at select locations for only about an hour each.  The jumbo shrimp were extra jumbo (10-15 per pound) this time!

 Angie and Collin peeled then I deveined.

 As expected, they were delicious!

I felt a little guilty telling Trevor we stopped by the shrimp truck, but he'll be blogging about his own experience this weekend.  Let's just say I didn't need to feel guilty at all. 

My dad stopped over for a little bit.  While he was here, Collin drew this picture on my iPad of all of us.

-A 

PS-I was trying to post videos of the dog park and Chip's visit, but they seemed to be in a format that didn't work.  Once I converted them to a format that would work, they were sideways and I couldn't find a way to rotate them.  Any of my fellow bloggers have tips? 

Easter.

Despite missing a few people (deployment and sickness), Easter was a blast!  My dad and I headed to Trevor's parents' house for a day full of fun.

 I helped out a bit in the kitchen then we got to work on stuffing eggs.  This is probably 1/4 of what we stuffed and hid, honestly.  While hiding this year's eggs, we found one that was surely from last year.

 Our egg hunters this year were 3, 5 and 9 so we made some pretty easy...

and some not so easy...

The kids had fun searching for eggs and even found a few for Papa Jeff (golf balls).  

We all worked up quite an appetite filling, hiding, and finding those eggs so we were more than ready for a big meal!

 Dustin and Danny had the ham under control-even did a little quality check for us.

 In addition to a great meal, we had some yummy treats for dessert.  We had the bird nest treats I made the day prior as well.

The home made frosting was delicious-and sticky too!

Our Easter baskets have a lot of fruit and a little candy because what kind of Easter basket would it be without Peeps?

After eating, we played Trouble while passing around the phone so everyone could video chat with Trevor.

Lots of this juice and plenty of treats means some boys with a lot of energy! (Elliot will pose for photos all day long, so he is in them the most.  Seems the older they get, the faster they run from the camera!)

 Extra sugar=extra energy=extra silly.

Okay, one nice picture, too.

I hope you all had a great weekend, too!

-A

Fun with the Girls.

I'm sure getting in lots of girl time lately, and I love it.  Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to have a boy back in the house, but I am most certainly making the most of this time.  Last night Lynn and her good friend Bree came over for a girls night in (and we made a delicious BLT pasta salad).  There's never a dull moment with Lynn, and I'm learning that goes for Bree too.  Then, this morning, Jenny came down to visit me and Rowdy.  It's been a little while since we've gotten together so we spent some time catching up, made a couple video calls to Adam and Trevor (so much easier to video chat with Trevor now that he's in the same time zone), then went to the dog park in Faribault.

We don't get too many opportunities for off-leash running in wide open areas, so it was a nice treat...until it started sprinkling.  Jenny, Rowdy and I headed back to Owatonna to get stuff to make some Easter goodies.

Bird's nest treats.

We got all the fixins for taco salad too and stuffed ourselves with that.  We hard boiled eggs but didn't quite get around to dying them.  We wanted to give the dog park another go since the sun decided to come out, so off we went!

That's better...two new friends (Border Collie and German Shepherd mix for those of you wondering) this time!  We did a couple laps around the park with our two new doggie friends and their families then just let them play for a while.  It was a great day for Rowdy, and me too! I couldn't tell you the last time Jenny and I blocked off a whole day to just do nothing together-it was awesome!  (Jenny, I know you're reading this, let's do that again SOON.)

-A

The Journey Home.

All of the ADVON (Advance Party) personnel had to meet at the bus and load our gear at 0800 on 4-APR-2012.  We loaded our gear onto the truck and took the 30-minute trip down to LSA (a base where most of the traveling is coordinated).  Once there, we all unloaded our gear off the truck.  After that, we are told that we have to meet in an hour for a formation.  Well, no formation was held, but we were told that we had an additional couple hours to "hang out" or get chow...whatever.  After those couple hours we had a briefing that lasted all of about 20 minutes.  Then, we sat in that tent for another 40 minutes or so.  We shuffled all of our gear over to the customs tent and had to have all of our bags x-rayed and then our person had to be imaged.  This was a long process to get everyone through this station who was set to be on the flight.  Lastly, we all went into a secured area on "lock-down" for the next 4 hours or so.

After the 4 hours of waiting we all had to get into alphabetical order to prepare to load the buses to transport us to the airport.  This process took about an hour until we loaded up on buses and headed to the airport.  The trip to the airport took roughly 2 hours.  Once there, we all got onto the plane and waited there for about 30 minutes until takeoff 45 minutes past midnight.

This leg of the trip took us to Liepzig, Germany.  It was about a 6.5 hour flight.  We all disembarked the aircraft to sit in a waiting area for the next couple hours while they refueled the plane and changed the "crew."  Then, we all hopped back on and took off about 30 minutes later.

At this point, it is about 10 a.m. Kuwait time.  We take off en route for Bangor, Maine, which is a 7 hour flight.  I slept most of the way. We landed in Maine where we were greeted by Vets of many conflicts as well as a hand full of various civilians and their families.  This is
a pretty powerful moment for me...getting back to America after being gone for so long is just a feeling I couldn't describe appropriately. It is just an amazing feeling!

After a 2 hour wait there, we got back onto the plane and headed to Pope Air Force Base right by Ft. Bragg.  Here is where about 20% of the plane's population got off for their welcome home ceremony.  These folks were all Active Duty personnel who are stationed at Ft. Bragg.
After about a 2.5 hour wait there, we all got back onto the plane and headed to Gulf Port, MS, which was a 2 hour trip.  We landed there and were greeted by a General and many of the Rear Detachment (non-deployed) Full time Staff who are here to prepare for us to demobilize.  Then, we loaded up the buses and took the 1.5 hour trip to Camp Shelby, MS.  Once we arrived here at about 1930 (7:30pm), 0330 Kuwait time on the 6th of APR, we unloaded all of our bags and headed to our temporary housing for the time being.  So, a total traveling experience taking roughly 43 hours from start to finish, or from Camp Buehring, Kuwait to Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

As much as I needed a shower, I need sleep more!  I wasn't feeling all too well from all of the traveling...taking off and landing..sitting...waiting...airline food, etc.  So, I hit the sack around 1030 p.m. to get some rest to be able to get up, shower and eat before I had to be in formation at 0645 the next morning to begin our demobilizing experience.

Here's what I look like after about 40 hours of travel.

Now...I'm here at Camp Shelby for the next few weeks to a month.  This should prove to be an interesting month.  I am excited as all hell to be in America as it is another step closer to HOME!  When I actually get to come HOME, however, I will probably be the happiest man alive!!!  The day is coming!!!  I will see you all soon!!!

-T

Birthday Party!

No big narrative this time, just some fun photos from our nephew's third birthday party...and the rest of the week.  It's been a busy one!  (I must give credit where credit is due, I am posting my week in photos after getting the idea from my friend Amy's Snippets posts.)

He wanted a closer look at his cake.

 And he wanted one of the wheel pieces of the cake.

 Rowdy had fun, too.

Time for presents-this one was from big brother, Parker.

Elliot, when you read this as an adult, please accept my apologies for posting photos of you opening underwear on your birthday.  You were so darn excited about it, though!

 Bugs!

Parker entertained himself with some iPod skee ball.

I believe the guess was "umbrella."

 Had to try it out right away!

My favorite funny story from the party: I asked Elliot, 3, if I should bring Rowdy inside.  He got a bit concerned and said "he will poop in here."  I assured him Rowdy is potty trained and wouldn't poop inside.  Elliot responded, "Well, he has a butt!"

*******

Went on a couple walks with Cassie and Addison this week.

11th Annual "Healing the Hearts of Our Children" Luncheon, my work's only fundraiser of the year.  Proud to say we met and exceeded our goal!

Tired Rowdy.

Saving the best for last, Trevor took this one while flying over New York on his journey to Camp Shelby where he'll be for a few weeks before coming home.  That's right folks, he's in the States!

-A